How do you say "pick-up truck" in French?

Happy Mother's Day to all of you wonderful women, and thanks for doing all that you do!

My apologies for being delinquent with my "weekly" post. It seems that French is taking up every last one of my brain cells.

It's slowly coming back to me, but it seems that I may have forgotten 80% of what I learned in high school and college.

I'm only scheduled for four weeks of language training before I have to take THE TEST! Yes, it's the exam that all language students dread. I need to receive a 2/2...that's a level 2 in speaking and level 2 in reading. 

In the meantime, I'm listening to as much French news as possible on the internet, reading articles, going to language lab, and doing a lot of homework for the approximately six hours a day that I'm in a classroom environment.

On another note, the vehicle search is over! I am the new owner of an '06 Toyota Tacoma (photo to come). Monday night my friend Mike was kind enough to drive me an hour and twenty minutes outside of the city so I could buy my pick-up. Thanks Mike!

It is a huge relief to have a vehicle. As soon as I receive the title, I will schedule an appointment with transportation to come and pick it up and ship it out.

Another milestone has passed signaling the dwindling of my time here in Washington D.C. Last week, a representative from the moving company that will handle my pack out came by to do the pre-survey. It should only take a couple of hours to pack up my toilet paper and canned goods as well as inventory everything, and then I will be left with two suitcases worth of belongings that will fly with me to the DRC. 


In addition to the pre-survey, I also sent my official introduction letters to my Ambassador and Deputy Chief of Mission at Embassy Kinshasa. I am in touch with the majority of my department in the security office, the general services officer, management officer, community liaison officer, and my newly appointed social sponsor. Everyone has been very welcoming, and I look forward to meeting them all in person next month.

My departure will likely be pushed back by a week due to some additional training that is informally referred to as "crash/bang" and formally referred to as FACT (Foreign Affairs Counter Threat) security training. Because I am going to a high threat post, I'm going to get a little extra training just in case...

It's sure to be interesting, and of course I will keep you updated.

(Please forgive any typos and/or poor quality of writing. It's 1:28 a.m.! I'm predicting that my morning workout is not going to happen.)